Matt Winkelman

Matt is originally from New Jersey, but after a 4 year side track to Cleveland for college he now resides in Madison, WI. His work has appeared on Baseball Prospectus, Crashburn Alley, Phuture Phillies, The Good Phight, and TheDynastyGuru.

The Past Week 10-3-2014

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The Past Week: BA League Top 20s: Aaron Brown #18 Prospect in NYPL, J.P. Crawford #2 Prospect in SAL, Jesmuel Valentin #12 Prospect in MWL Adam Morgan Assigned to Arizona Fall League Minor League Affiliate Recaps (Clearwater and Reading) – Phillies Minor Thoughts Florida Instructional League Recaps (9/27, 10/1, 10/2) – Jim Peyton (Phuture Phillies) … Read more

Jesmuel Valentin Named #12 Prospect in Midwest League

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When Ruben Amaro moved Roberto Hernandez in a waiver move to the Dodgers for two players to be named later, the expectations were not high on the potential return.  However, those opinions have faded quickly as the return turned out to be 2B Jesmuel Valentin and RHP Victor Arano.  Arano did not crack the MWL … Read more

Post Season Minor League Mailbag

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I have been slowly build mailbag questions for a while waiting until I had enough to answer them all, and here it is.  Like always there great questions here.

Christopher Smith (@shindaga7225): Next prospect to make an impact that has not been placed on 40 man roster ie Franco?

Dan (@Sixers_Fan1243): Chance Nola pitches for Philly next year?

I have to go with Aaron Nola as the answer to the first question.  Jesse Biddle will get his 40 man spot this offseason, but Nola has more impact long term.  In an ideal world Nola has 100% chance to arrive in Philadelphia in 2015.  He was the most advanced starting pitcher in the 2015 draft.  The reason this is not 100% chance is that there is a small chance he won’t be ready, but a slightly larger chance he gets hurt.  Nola is a freak in his delivery it works really well for him, but pitchers get hurt for entirely mysterious reasons.  But if Nola stays healthy next year there is probably a 90%+ chance he ends up in the majors at some point.  If everything goes fairly well I would expect him to debut at some point between the middle of June and the All-Star game.

If you are looking for the sleeper guy, Crawford should be in AA next year and the jump over AAA is always in play.  If Crawford tears it up in AA and shows above average defense, there is a chance he could make the majors in 2015 if there is a major Rollins injury or trade.  It is much more likely he doesn’t get there until 2016, but he is so advanced he could make the majors early and then develop there.

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J.P. Crawford Named #2 Prospect in South Atlantic League

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Baseball America continues their League Top 20s with the South Atlantic League.  The only member of the Blueclaws to make the list is shortstop and 2013 first round pick J.P. Crawford who came in at #2 on the list, just behind Nationals RHP Lucas Giolito.  BA notes that Crawford is the rare shortstop that combines … Read more

2014 Reading Fightin Phils Recap: Interview with Mike Ventola

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Before we jump into talking about players why don’t you introduce yourself and what you do?

My name is Michael Ventola and I am the play-by-play radio voice of the Reading Fightin Phils.  I broadcast all 142 games home and away for the Fightin Phils.

You covered the Fightins from start to finish, can you sum up their season as a whole?

I can easily use one word to describe the season:  Challenge.  The Fightin Phils roster suffered over a 100 moves throughout the entire season and only finished with a handful of players that began with the team on opening day.  The team though continued to play hard each and every game.

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Adam Morgan Assigned to the AFL

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Scottsdale roster addition: LHP Adam Morgan (@Phillies) #afl14 — MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) October 1, 2014 Morgan made his season debut in Instructs last week.  The LHP was ranked in the Top 100 prospect by Keith Law after the 2012 season (#1 in the Phillies system).  He missed all of 2014 recovering from shoulder … Read more

2014 Reading Fightin Phils Recap

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Team: Reading Fightin Phils
Record: 66-76
Standing: 6th in the Eastern Division

Top Hitter Stat Lines:

Cameron Perkins – 52 G – 3 HR – 5 SB – .342/.408/.495
Jake Fox – 78 G – 22 HR – 0 SB – .308/.383/.591
Kelly Dugan – 76 G – 5 HR – 1 SB – .296/.383/.435
Tommy Joseph – 21 G – 5 HR – 0 SB – .282/.345/.551
Carlos Alonso – 127 G – 10 HR – 8 SB – .272/.367/.396

Top Pitcher Stat Lines:

Ken Giles – 15 IP – 1.20 ERA – 5 BB – 29 K
Adam Loewen – 103.1 IP – 3.31 ERA – 53 BB – 75 K
Colton Murray– 59.0 IP – 2.29 ERA – 22 BB – 60 K
Severino Gonzalez – 158.2 IP – 4.59 ERA – 34 BB – 115 K
Aaron Nola – 24.0 IP – 2.63 ERA – 5 BB – 15 K

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2014 Clearwater Threshers Recap: Interview with Jim Peyton

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Before we jump into talking about players why don’t you introduce yourself to those that haven’t already read your work and where people can find your writing?

I am Jim Peyton.  I started reporting for Phuture Phillies in Spring Training 2014.  I began by covering the players invited to the major league camp.  I attended a few of the games at Bright House but spent most of my time at the Carpenter Complex following the young prospects.  I continued to follow them through XST while covering the Threshers.  When XST broke, I followed the GCL and the draft picks who were assigned to the Clearwater teams.  I am just now beginning to attend the Instructional League games.  In fact, after sending this to Matt, I’ll be heading over to watch an intra-squad game.

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Revisiting Pre-Season Minor League Predictions

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It took everyone recapping their major league predictions yesterday for me to remember that I made minor league predictions at the beginning of the year.  So before I forget again, lets see how wrong I was about things.  The original list was published on Phuture Phillies, feel free to peruse the comments for others predictions and opinions as well.

1. Both Maikel Franco and Jesse Biddle do not exhaust their prospect eligibility.  Both are not called up until rosters expand.  Biddle puts up good numbers but is blocked in the major league level and left to make adjustments in AAA.

The first part was right, neither Biddle or Franco exhausted their eligibility this year, and Franco did not come up until rosters expanded.  As for Biddle, he neither put up good numbers, nor was he blocked at the major league level.  I want to give myself partial credit, but I really blew the Biddle prediction.

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